Carrasco Studio

Mysterious and Mutable...Watercolor and Water Lesson 1

Water and watercolor are a true marriage of image and media...the luscious slurp of a big brush loaded with water and pigment on a prime sheet of watercolor paper is a product of fear and delight.  Delight because it is so sensuous and fear because if you screw up you are doomed.

Your renderings of water can be smooth and sinuous as a trout slipping through a dim pool, or as turbulent as a storm on a raging sea.

Your water reflection of a "flowering pot" can glance off a shallow puddle on a concrete deck or show a choppy vision of sky and sun behind a copse of trees on the surface of a mountain stream.

Water can twist and turn a reflection into an exuberant abstract expressionist explosion or expand it into long horizontal blades in the water.

Cand P Watercolor Lesson 1  Water and Water Color

1. Lesson 1, Intro...Mitch’s lecture on May 4th! Bring a friend!

2.  Intro: class registration, badges.

3.  Pictures of  water reflections. Reflections are NOT shadows. ....think of “open mouth” shapes for curved or bent reflections. Inclusion of light and dark in rippled reflection. Slashes of light and dark, lozenges of color or broken wiggles of color...ranging from one transparent color to the next.  Length of reflection is  usually length of object, but painters often exaggerate for effect.

 Demo of laying wash.   Demo with maskoid.....let colors “bleed” into wet shapes and lines....with flat, round and rigger brushes.. See above...

4.  Old hands....  Do two washes, let dry.  Practice different brush “wiggles” on scrap paper..then do one water reflection with brilliant colors reminiscent of Venice.  Divide second paper in half, sketch in Cameron’s trees,  Then paint trees and “match” trees in a lake of reflections.Temper your greens with complements (reds) and purples and neutrals..umbers, etc.
8.  Beginners.... Tear and tape two 1/8 paper....examine different types of paper....and types of brushes.Flats, brights, rounds and riggers.  Do  2 washes ( why let  dry ?) and then do color wheel. Give out pigment listing.  Print out complement combinations under the color wheel.

Practice brush strokes with water on brown paper.  Then try some “psychedelic” reflections...remember to keep the water in your watercolor.  Try all three brushes.  For the second one, go with brightly colored reflected buildings. (Venice)

Assignment: Please read pg. 92 to 93  of Jan Hart’s book very carefully.....think how you would paint a “wild water” waterfall with lots of rocks and white water.  Remember, you get white in watercolor by leaving that part unpainted!  For those of you who missed the class, you can find many of the puzzling terms in Jan Hart's book...i.e....types of paper and brushes....color wheel and complements...washes.  Look 'em up!

And, last and perhaps least, you can easily apply the rules of watercolor to depicting water in other mediums.  For instance, a glaze of transparent green over some rocks and a sheen of sunset in a far horizon over the sheet of calm ocean water will do it for an acrylic mural and a slash or two of white glaze and some darker blue line wiggles over an opaque cobalt blue (with some subtle duck reflections) will work for an acrylic vignette.  (Remember, with transparent watercolor, you would LEAVE the white of paper showing instead of painting white.)  Quack.

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/17/09  All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission.

Spring Glitter

Today when we got our day of sun, I went for a walk (Yes!  I can! Now!) down by the HighPoint catchment pond.  Everything was shining....the water, the new grass and the punctuation marks of bright yellow dandelions.  The grass was so sleek and so green I wanted to get down on all fours and munch it like a Holstein.

The wind was sharp and it cut tiny glittering knives in the water as it swept across its surface.  All was bright and tossing and wrinkled with lights.  And miracle of all, there is a wood duck couple who seem to have set up residence in the weeds at the pond's far end.  Of all the male ducks, Mr. Wood Duck is the most natty.  His suit of black and red and white and  his blue beak are immaculate.  His feathers are tailored to perfection and his head looks like it has been plastered down with Brilliantine.  All he needs to complete his outfit is a pair of spats.

Whenever I see such glitter and sparkle, I think of this poem by Robert Herrick.

Upon Julia's Clothes

Whenas in silks my Julia goes,

Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows

That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes and see

That brave vibration each way free,

O how that glittering taketh me!

           

Anna Akhmatova Swimming

"......Anya had grown tall and graceful, with long, thick, straight dark hair and beautiful white hands. Her gray eyes looked out of an almost unnaturally pale face.  Swimming in the dark, still waters of the ponds of Tsarskoye Selo, she (seemed) like some mermaid or water nymph and Gumilyov was...entranced by this image.(Amanda Haight, Anna Akhmatova: A Poetic Pilgrimage" pg. 8)

Gurgle and Slosh...Watercolor lesson 4

I must apologize for the quality of these photos...it was evening in my studio, and I was painting and photographing at the same time!

Watercolor Lesson 4...Fall class...CandP

Read these directions all the way through before you start. (up to “Assignment”)  Sequence is important because of drying time!!!!!

 Washes.  Prepare and tape two pieces of paper.

     1. prepare an intense dark value of blue.  Then mix your primaries for a warm dark         brown neutral. Have   enough of all these in your sauce cups or wells for two                     paintings.  Don’t be stingy.   
    2.  Wet all of 1st  paper with your big soft brush.

    3.   With the blue value paint, start painting with your big brush at the top of your 1st paper, catching the   “lip” of the color as you go down, adding water as you go and fade out to no color about 1/3 way down   the paper.Wet second paper and do the same.

       4.Pick up some clouds with your brush or paper towel.  Do this for both.

  5.  Turn your papers upside down, re-wet your paper if you need to, and do the same with your warm umber...fading to no color about 1/3 toward the middle of the paper.

4.  Examine some of the possiblities  of images in my photos for your “tide pools”  make some quick sketches. Don’t spend more than 15 minutes at this. (time yourself!)

5. Painting the images.  With the warm umber, paint in your rocks....start in the ‘‘back”  or 1/3 up from the bottom of the paper, adding rocks down to the bottom, getting darker in value  as you reach the bottom.  Remember, relative size (smaller=far away) as well as lighter value =farther away.

LIGHTLY sketch in some tidal critters....shells, fish, coral, kelp, crab, etc etc. and paint them with colors of your choosing.  Use stains, if you can, since you don't want to lift the images when you glaze over them.

HAVE SOME FUN....DON’T BE WORRIED ABOUT MAKING THINGS LOOK TOO “ REAL”  Just, for each color remember....lighter values can appear farther away, and smaller relative shape (Big Dark Shark vs. small light shark) can create a feeling of distance.

6.  Masking fluid can be fun...you can block out shapes you want to remain white.

7. Decide where you want your horizon line......you can tape it if you want.  From that line, do a wash of greenish blue.  Cobalts are great for this, but use what you have. (It will be hard to remove stains)  Start with your big soft brush and  intense color at the horizon line , like you did for the sky and let it fade to nothing by about 1/4 down at the bottom of the paper.  Wash over your critters lightly . Don’t stroke too much and lift the paint!   Come to the water’s edge (1/4 left! ) let it dry. )

At the bottom of the paper, define the wet edge of the sand and water with some intense fading umber (Wet the edge first), perhaps going around a few shells and rocks.        Let it dry.  Work on your other painting.

Come back to the first painting when it is dry and paint in some ripples and swells and little waves by either adding or subtracting paint. Soften the horizon edge a bit with a damp stiff brush.  Remove some paint to include the sail of the sailboat on the horizon.  Add some darker values for the rocks or seal or whatever poking above the waterline.

Assignment: Read  pgs 86 to 87 and 122 to 123   and finish your second painting and bring to class.  Come to class with  two taped pieces  of 1/8 size paper